CognosÂ®, the provider of business intelligence and performance management solutions, and Deloitte, a charter member of the Cognos Global Partner program, have announced their strategic alliance continues to extend performance management excellence to customers worldwide.

Hundreds of joint customers including Austrian Ministry of Finance, BW Offshore, the Forestry Commission in the UK, have benefited from the Cognos-Deloitte alliance to implement performance management solutions for better decision-making within their organisations.

Deloitte works collaboratively with clients to successfully deploy Cognos solutions by assisting in project elements ranging from business requirements assessments and design to project management and execution. As a Cognos Global Alliance partner, Deloitte has successfully implemented Cognos performance management solutions including Cognos Business Intelligence, Cognos Planning and Cognos Controller at more than 150 customer sites worldwide

Austriaâs Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) recently added Cognos 8 Planning to its existing implementation of Cognos 8 Business Intelligence and worked with Deloitte to roll it out. This initiative is part of a government-wide enterprise-planning project that will benefit all ministries and top federal offices. Prior to Cognos, a combination of spreadsheets and disparate software were used across various ministries to handle planning and budgeting. However, this piecemeal approach did not scale or support the integration of qualitative information useful for substantiating budget submissions and approval workflow. It also did not integrate well with the governmentâs complex security and information system landscape. In addition, it was critical that the planning solution BMF implemented could support and extend the value of the ministryâs SAP R/3 transaction data.

Deloitte Consulting GmbH provided professional consulting services to the BMF project team, and Cognos 8 Planning was selected based on its certified support for SAP data sources, extensive leverage of the Cognos Business Intelligence data and system architecture already in place, and its ability to meet specific customer requirements.

âWe worked closely with the Deloitte team, who provided best practice methodology and helped with the Cognos implementation. Cognos 8 Planning now incorporates all our stringent requirements and allows us to implement a flexible system that supports various internal processes across forecasting, planning and budgeting functions,â said Adelheid Stari, head of applications at BMF. âUsers can now add documents and comments to master budget data for background and justification. The support and extension of our SAP R/3 data as well as the single sign on (SSO) capability has also made this implementation successful. We continue to team with Deloitte on rolling out the Cognos solution to all ministries and top government offices throughout Austria.â

BW Offshore (BWO), a leading operator of Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units, had been working with Deloitte Consulting to assist in their financial processes. After reviewing alternatives for a new consolidation process to eliminate a spreadsheet based system, BWO worked with Deloitte to implement Cognos Controller to automate the close process, reduce cycle times, and assure data integrity. BWO was also looking to update their reporting system as well as implementing a planning and budgeting solution that was more aligned with BWOâs core business processes.

Deloitte involved the BWO business community, listened to their needs, presented them with various iterations based on those needs, and collected their feedback to arrive at the final implementation model. Cognos Controller was deployed as the first step in the project implementation. Cognos Planning for budgeting purposes then went into production. Deloitte is working closely with BWO on delivering extended reporting with Cognos 8 BI and Cognos Planning for financial reporting, project estimation, project execution and forecasting reports in the next phase of the project in early 2008.

âThrough the Deloitte-Cognos Planning implementation, we will have improved budgeting, forecasting and cash flow projections and a critical estimation model, which simulates the cost of new projects,â said Johnny Duedahl, Chief Controller Finance & Accounting Division at BWO. âCognos BI will provide extended reporting capabilities on top of Cognos Planning, while Cognos Controller ensures that our finance community can spend more time on analysis. Deloitte and Cognos are delivering a robust performance management system that is easily adjustable to the changes in our business structure, to help make future decisions easier.â

âDeloitte and Cognos continually strive to offer clients faster and more efficient ways of navigating today's competitive terrain, and solutions that ensure integrated performance management throughout their organisations,â said Scott Sognefest, Principal and US Practice Leader for Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing with Deloitte Consulting LLP. âCognosâ enabling technology combined with Deloitte's thought leadership and leading practices are helping our mutual customers harness corporate data to help them see what's driving their business, so that they can make faster, more informed business decisions.â

To accelerate time to value and success for joint customers, Cognos and Deloitte have collaborated to produce solutions for various industry and department areas including: o Deloitteâs Integrated Performance Management (IPM) a structured management approach for translating strategic objectives into operational results through a lens focused on value creation. o The Close, Consolidate, Report Blueprint a Powered by Cognos solution, which helps companies quickly address gaps and weaknesses in the financial close process, make focused investments, and optimise the use of technology. o The Supply Chain Performance Accelerator a Powered by Cognos solution for supply chain planning and reporting that helps organisations optimise their supplier operations.

âThe alliance between Cognos and Deloitte offers a unique combination of deep industry expertise with best-in-class performance management capabilities,â said Mel Seledon, senior vice president, global alliances at Cognos. âTogether, we successfully help customers deploy the right performance management solution to fit their needs, while streamlining and maximising their BI technology investments. We provide a compelling solution for any company looking to improve decision-making, performance management and add value to their daily operations.â

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